


if you go down to the woods today

by fizzyblogic (phizzle)



Category: Hazards of Love (Album)
Genre: Gen, Ghosts, WIP Amnesty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-20
Updated: 2011-04-20
Packaged: 2017-11-14 16:27:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/517292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phizzle/pseuds/fizzyblogic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A family vacation by the forest.</p>
            </blockquote>





	if you go down to the woods today

“You know the legend, don’t you?”

Greta huddled closer to Robert. “No.” Her voice trembled.

Felix bared his teeth in a grin, made more monstrous by the flashlight. “They say that in the forest,” he paused while Greta looked nervously around at the trees outside their window, “there’s a haunted river.”

Robert scoffed. “Don’t be silly. Don’t listen to him, munchkin,” he added, putting an arm around Greta. “Rivers can’t be haunted.”

“This one is,” Felix insisted with every ounce of feeling only a six-year-old like himself can produce. “There was a man once, who was a faun in the daylight, and he fell in love with a woman. Only she got kidnapped and when he went to rescue her, they were both drownded in the river.”

Greta gasped. “ _Drown_ ded?”

Eyes wide, Felix nodded slowly for emphasis. “And they walk the river, both of them. If you look down into it from the edge, you can see a white faun moving around.”

Greta gave a little shriek, and Robert cradled her protectively to his side. “Don’t be stupid, Felix. It’ll just be the stones on the riverbed. Why are you always telling her these stories, anyway? You know how much they scare her.” He gave Greta a squeeze. She whimpered into his sweater. “Some twin _you_ are.”

“I’m telling her things so she knows where not to go!” Felix protested. “What kind of brother are _you_ , keeping important stuff from your little sister? She has to know these things!”

“Children, children,” a sleepy voice hailed them from the doorway. “It’s late, we’ve had a long drive. Go to bed, okay?”

Greta bolted to her father and clung to his legs. “Felix says there’s a river, out there,” a fearful finger pointed at the cabin window, “and there’s _ghosts_ and a faun and they walk around at the bottom of the river. I want to go home, Daddy,” and she burst into tears.

He bent and picked her up, hugging her close. “It’s okay, sweetie, no ghosts can get you in here. You’re safe with us, I promise.” She buried her head in his shoulder, hiccups of tears subsiding, and he threw a sharp look at the boys. “Felix, how many times do I have to tell you, _stop_ scaring your sister. Now go to sleep, both of you.”

“I was helping,” Robert said, standing up. “I told her there’s no such thing as ghosts.”

His dad came into the room to ruffle his hair. “Good. Now get to bed. We’ll go exploring tomorrow, okay? But not near any rivers,” he added, as Greta sniffled in alarm. “The rest of the forest is safe, right Felix?”

“Right,” he said, quivering as though with undisclosed information. “Just don’t anger the Queen,” he muttered under his breath. Only Robert heard him, but he glared for his father too.

*

“Look, look at this, Greta! Isn’t this a pretty butterfly?”

Greta nodded and held fast to her mother’s hand. Felix was several paces ahead, calling loudly, “We humbly ask for safe passage through your woods, O Queen.” His father rolled his eyes and pointed out some moss to Robert, who was scribbling things down in a notebook.

“Mummy,” Greta tugged at her sweater, “is it true about the river?”

“Is what true, sweetheart?”

“Felix says there are … ghosts there,” she said, whispering _ghosts_ and glancing about as though calling them such would bring them forth with a crash. “Daddy and Robert say there’s no such thing, but what if there _is_?” Her eyes wide and darting, she moved closer.

Her mom gave her as much of a hug as she could do from that height. “Listen to your father and Robert. You know Felix just likes to scare you with his silly stories. None of them are true, I promise.”

Greta didn’t seem entirely comforted, but

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
That's all I have. My plans! Pretty much they were: Greta eventually is persuaded to stop worrying and start playing, so she heads off with Robert. Felix is looking in the river to see if he can see the faun ghost, so their dad goes with him to look for fish while their mom takes pictures of the foliage and generally enjoys a sunny walk through a lovely forest. Greta runs ahead of her brother, who is noting things about the plants for a science project (he likes science), and then she almost runs straight into three children, who look like they're probably siblings. They ask if she wants to play, and she does, so they teach her a game involving lots of running around and deciding which stone is 'it' and things like that. She's never played it before, but she loves it and decides to teach it to everyone back home.

Anyway, her mom and Robert come to get her, so she says goodbye and they head back home for lunch. "Who were you saying goodbye to?" her mom asks, as they're walking.

"My friends," Greta replies. "Isaiah, Dawn and Charlotte. They taught me this really cool game where you have to run in three circles around something that's 'it' and then —"

"But there was no one there," her mom interrupts. Greta frowns.

"Well, they hid when you came to get me," she shrugs, "but they're probably just shy. Isaiah stayed."

Her mom shakes her head, but doesn't say anything else. Felix runs ahead, talking about the fish they caught, all thoughts of ghosts forgotten.


End file.
